


Decking the Halls

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Party, Getting Together, Hand Jobs, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:41:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Lester has too much on his mind to care about Christmas. Becker helps him see different.
Relationships: Hilary James Becker/James Lester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Decking the Halls

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a Christmas present for the lovely nietie who gave the prompt “It's the time to be jolly”

Lester did not appreciate Christmas especially when it seemed to come earlier and earlier every year. Soon the entire twelve months would be given over to planning Christmas, having Christmas, regretting Christmas with no end in sight. What he especially did not appreciate however was the forced cheerfulness. There was a time for cheer and there was a time for seriousness, and leading a team of misfits protecting the world from forces none of them understood did not class as a time for cheer.

“Has no one told you it's the time to be jolly?” Becker asked.

Lester did not start at Becker's silent approach, but his heart did ratchet up a notch.

“No one has told me anything else,” Lester snapped and Becker took an almost startled step backwards. “What do you want?”

“The reports from the latest mission, sir,” Becker said, back suddenly ramrod straight. “Even Cutter's.”

“Miracles of miracles,” Lester muttered, taking the papers from Becker's outstretched hand. He realised he probably owed the other man an apology but the words to do so wouldn't come and by the time the silence had become uncomfortable Becker had nodded and left the room.

Lester sighed. He realised the problem was that his ex-wife had taken the children away skiing again and he wouldn't get to see them until well after the New Year but that was certainly no reason to take out his frustrations on his staff. Especially not the competent ones.

He sat back behind his desk, drumming his fingers idly on his phone before summoning his ever dependable assistant Lorraine into his office.

“Do you need me to file those?” she asked, motioning towards the reports Lester still had grasped tightly in his hand.

“Yes, but that isn't why I wanted to see you.”

Lorraine waited patiently for him to get to the point. Eventually she shifted her feet and his mind came back from where it had been wandering.

“Are we doing anything for Christmas?” he finally asked her.

“Is this the royal “we”?” she asked.

Lester regretted, not for the first time, ever becoming involved with any of these people. “I mean specifically you and the ARC. Have you planned any kind of Christmas shenanigans?”

“ _Shenanigans?_ ”

“You know what I mean.”

Lorraine bit back her smile. “There's a Christmas party in the canteen tomorrow, barring national emergencies. A few mince pies and watered down beer.” She stepped forward into the office a little. “We didn't think you'd want anything else. You've been – a little more Scrooge like than normal.”

Lester was more shocked than he let on. He realised he'd been particularly cantankerous the last few months but then there were so many outside pressures he was trying to juggle and he hadn't wanted to worry anyone, but perhaps that had been a misstep. These people, impossibly mad and shockingly loyal, deserved to know what was happening. He just hadn't wanted to be the one that told them he'd lost all control of the ARC to private enterprise.

“Sir?” Lorraine asked, not, he suspected for the first time. “If there's anything I can do to help?”

“I know,” Lester assured her. “I do know.”

Lorraine looked pleased and Lester wondered when he had last thanked her, properly thanked her for a job well done. Maybe he really was turning into Scrooge. But that would end tonight.

“What do you think it would take to deck the halls and fill the mead cup?”

“Unlimited access to the expenses account,” Lorraine said immediately.

Lester raised an eyebrow, sighed, and then handed over his personal credit card. “Please don't bankrupt me.”

Lorraine stared at the card in her hand with wide eyes and then solemnly nodded. “Your wish is my command,” she said, bowing cheekily as she exited backwards through the door.

Lester smiled for the first time in weeks.

* * * * *

Lorraine really had outdone herself. He didn't want to think how much this must of cost him, or who Lorraine had got to help her, since it was simply impossible for her to have done all of the hard work alone, but he could safely say that he was thoroughly impressed and the halls had indeed been decked.

There was a large Christmas tree in the corner safely away from the ADD. Colourful lights shone from the ceiling, tinsel wrapped its way around the stair rail to his office where he could also just make out a small tree and other decorations and mistletoe was in surprising abundance for a modern office with serious sexual harassment policies in place.

As he moved down through the corridors and poked his head into offices and laboratories he saw many surprised but mostly happy people admiring baubles and candy canes and wreathes. It was in the canteen though that he truly had his breath taken away. Not only would the place easily have doubled as Santa's Grotto but there were three large tables heaving with enough food to feed every member of the ARC twice over and several woolly mammoths.

“A little bird tells me this was your idea.”

Lester jumped a little as Becker sidled up to his side, closer than was strictly necessary.

“Well, it is Christmas.”

Becker nodded. “That it is.”

They stood watching as Abby started pointing out different decorations to Stephen who was being pushed around in his wheelchair by a Connor who kept stuffing himself with sausage rolls and having to flick away flaky pastry as it hit Stephen's neck. They both smiled as eventually Stephen reached for a napkin and placed it around his neck and Connor meekly put back the fifth sausage roll he'd been about to eat.

“He's on a lot of drugs,” Becker said.

“Connor or Stephen?” Lester asked, pleased that his response elicited a smile from the soldier.

“Stephen, as you well know,” Becker replied. “It's made him quite mellow.”

“I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. Is he...” Lester trailed off, not quite sure what he was asking.

“He's good,” Becker reassured him. “We had a nice chat.”

Lester raised his eyebrow at that but then perhaps it wasn't all that surprising. Stephen had always gotten on well with the soldiers before, there was no real reason why this wouldn't be the case with Becker.

“And you, how are you doing?” Becker asked.

“Me?” Lester asked, desperately thinking of a way to deflect the question.

“Yes, you,” Becker said. He was looking serious now and Lester found himself leading the other man out of the room to one of the empty laboratories for a bit more privacy.

“Things are getting complicated,” Lester said. “But I don't want that to ruin anyone's Christmas.”

“Is it going to ruin yours?” Becker asked.

“I'm not much for Christmas these days,” Lester said, not quite answering the question. Perhaps this had been a mistake. Maybe he should wait until the New Year to unburden himself. Perhaps it shouldn't be Becker he was talking to.

As his thoughts became more scattered he didn't notice that Becker had strayed closer to him until he was kissing him and his mind went blissfully blank. So blank that it was only as Becker was moving away with an embarrassed look on his face that he realised he wasn't doing anything and quickly put that to rights, pulling Becker back towards him and licking his way into his mouth. He felt Becker smile against his lips and then winced as he was pushed up against something metallic and hollow sounding.

They jerked apart quickly and Becker examined the equipment with a professional eye. “Nothing broken,” he declared. “Though maybe we shouldn't do this in here.”

“No, perhaps...”

“I hear there's a party on,” Becker said, faux casually. “Lots of people all in one place. The same place.”

“I don't – oh. Yes. So my office will be empty.”

“That's what I thought,” Becker agreed, and pulled the other man after him.

* * * * *

So it was at quarter to midnight on Christmas Eve Lester found himself making out on the sofa in his office with an impossibly handsome soldier as if all his teenage fantasies had sprung to life at once.

“You think exceedingly loudly,” Becker observed, taking a break to press a soft bite against Lester's neck.

“I have a lot to – ah – a lot to – a lot to – a lot to think about.”

Becker grinned against his neck and Lester could feel his entire body flush with a heavy mixture of desire and embarrassment.

Becker's hands began to explore Lester's body and Lester considered this permission to do the same to Becker who willingly moved forward to give Lester better access to his belt and zip. Before he knew it they were madly kissing and seeking each other's release with their hands and frantically shuffling against the sofa and each other.

“Fuck,” Lester gasped as Becker did something with his fingers that saw him seeing stars.

“Definitely later,” Becker said, shuddering through his own orgasm.

“Deal,” Lester panted, removing his hand and wiping it lazily down Becker's trousers, smiling with his eyes closed at Becker's token protest.

It took several moments for him to come back to himself, he wasn't a young man any more after all, and when he did it was to see Becker staring at him with a particularly soft look on his face. It made something in him crack a little and he could feel his face falling and the walls he was normally carefully constructing crumbling little by little.

“You can tell me anything, you know that?” Becker said. He moved closer to Lester and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Anything at all.”

Lester nodded. He did know that. He was just uncertain for the first time in a long time about what he was going to do.

“The team are all behind you. 100%.”

Lester huffed a small laugh that turned into a grimace. “You don't know what's happening, yet.”

“Doesn't matter,” Becker said.

Lester looked over at him and something of Becker's absolute surety gave him the strength he was looking for.

“There's something, something I should have told you all before but I thought I could hold it off and now.” He sighed and looked out over the back of the sofa into the atrium. At some point people had begun to congregate near the ADD and he had a fleeting moment of panic that they might have seen something before he started to dress himself.

“James?”

“It's all right,” Lester said. “It's going to be all right,” he amended. “Come on, help me look presentable. It's Christmas and I need to make a speech.”

“And?” Becker prompted, following Lester over to the private bathroom at the back of his office.

“And then, when we're at home, I'll tell you about a man named Philip Burton and what the future of the ARC is going to look like.”

“All right,” Becker said, a little unsure. “But you're okay, there's no one I need to go out and kill is there?”

Lester smiled and then laughed as Becker pulled him into a sloppy kiss. “No, no one you need to kill.” Then he paused, considering. “Though let's not take anything off the table.”

This time it was Becker's turn to laugh.

But he still put in an order for extra ammunition the next day. Just in case.


End file.
